Week in Review: Park supporters have to pay; Hungry for a snook fillet?

Corey Perrine/Staff
Pamela Duran walks off stage after speaking out against drilling oil in Collier County Tuesday, June 11, 2013 at South Regional Library in Naples, Fla. Preserve Our Paradise hosted a town hall-style meeting to allow residents to comment on a proposed drilling project in Golden Gate Estates. Dozens attended as a result for those at a May 30 meeting who did not have a chance to speak. Preserve Our Paradise is a local organization formed by concerned residents as a result of the first meeting at the University of Florida/IFAS Collier County Extension Office.

Corey Perrine/Staff
Workers build homes Wednesday, July 18, 2012 at Riverstone community in Naples, Fla. The new community is proof of a strengthening housing market/economy in Southwest Florida.

Naples Daily News

Stephen Fletcher, of Immokalee, speaks to members of the Collier County Airport Authority Board. Tristan Spinski/Staff

Tristan Spinski

Joyce Wilson

Stacy Stoneburner with a snook she caught and released off the beach using live bait.

Were you out of town last week or too busy to follow all the local news?

Here is a look back at the week that was in Southwest Florida:

Council decides how to pay for new park

With Naples City Council's recent decision to purchase a piece of waterfront property, residents can expect a new park in the coming years.

They can also expect a bill.

After agreeing in early June to pay $3 million for a 6.7 acre parcel on the Gordon River and setting aside another $2.5 million to develop it and an adjoining property into a park, council members were faced this week with a dilemma — how to pay for it.

On Tuesday, they voted to take half the money from various reserve budgets. The other half they voted to take directly from residents in the form of a $160, one-time special assessment on property owners.

"We sat here and spent $5.5 million in the blink of an eye," Councilwoman Dee Sulick said. "If people expect that kind of a facility to be built, with that kind of an acquisition, there is a price tag."

The Collier County market is among the nation's most improved, according to the latest National Association of Home Builders/First American Improving Market Index. The index lists 263 U.S. markets based on growth in employment, permits and home prices.

Of the 17 other Florida metro markets that appeared on the list, Naples was No. 1 in employment growth at 10.4 percent; tied for No. 2 in permit growth at 5.7 percent; and No. 11 in price growth at 8.8 percent.

Collier Commissioners took steps this week to keep one of the Immokalee airport's biggest tenants happy.

Steve Fletcher, the owner of Fletcher's Flying Service Inc., now has a 10-year lease at the airport. Fletcher was previously on a month-to-month lease because of concerns by some members of the Collier Airport Authority over his safety practices.

As part of the deal, Fletcher's company can also lease a larger staging area and was given free tie-down storage for some aircraft. The company will also have permission to pursue the installation of a turf runway, at its own expense.

Commissioners also gave Fletcher the go-ahead to engage in a controversial fueling technique, known as hot fueling, during which aircraft are filled with gas while they are running.

Fletcher Flying Services is the airport's largest fuel customer.

"There's a lot of emotion in these items and there should not be," said Commissioner Tom Henning, who helped craft the agreement. "I brought this forward as a business decision."

Lee County's top pick to be the next county manager admitted this week that the speed of her selection was "a little overwhelming."

Because of that, Joyce Wilson almost withdrew her name from consideration, it was revealed this week.

Wilson, who is the El Paso, Texas, city manager, said in an email to the Daily News this week that her concerns had nothing to do with the job or the community, but were instead reactions to how fast everything came together. The media, she said, was assertive, but not unreasonable. Commissioners made Wilson their top pick while she was flying back to Texas.

"When I got off the plane in Dallas, there were all sorts of phone messages, texts and emails that I was the finalist and they were going to approve the contract the following Tuesday," she said. "Initially, it was a little overwhelming."

Commissioners voted Tuesday to begin negotiations with Wilson. She said she is, in fact, committed to coming to Lee County.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission voted unanimously Wednesday to let expire an executive order that closed the species to fishing in the Gulf of Mexico. The closure came after a January 2010 cold snap that caused a mass kill that depleted stocks by more than 20 percent.

The fishery will return to pre-closure regulations, including a one fish per angler, per day bag limit. Any fish must be between 28 inches and 32 inches to be eligible for the cooler.

Snook season will reopen Sept. 1. It will be closed from Dec. 1 and Feb. 28, and again during the primary spawning season between May 1 and Aug. 31.

"Hopefully the biologists have done their due diligence because I don't want to see them get decimated again," said Capt. Tony Fontana of Naples. "I feel like the season has been closed for so long that it might spark an interest and a lot of guys will want to go out and kill one on the first day."

Hertz may want to settle permanently in Estero, but its first Southwest Florida home will be in North Naples.

The rental car company announced Thursday that it will put its temporary headquarters at the Fifth Third Center off Vanderbilt Beach Road near U.S. 41, the largest office building in Collier County.

The company chose the site because "it was the best fit for us to get the number of employees we need to get into Southwest Florida," said Richard Broome, Herz's executive vice president for corporate affairs and communications.

The news was met with excitement from local business leaders and others who said the move would put Naples on the map.

"People around the world will see this. I think that's great for Naples," said Craig Timmins, a principal in IPC, a Naples-based commercial real estate brokerage firm.

Hertz's new headquarters in Estero is not expected to be finished until early 2015. The company plans to start occupying the Fifth Third building at the end of August, with select employees working there by October.